High Court quashes TTR marine consent, sends it back

High Court quashes TTR marine consent, sends it back for
reconsideration

By Rebecca Howard

Aug. 28
(BusinessDesk) - Trans Tasman Resources' marine consent for
an offshore iron sands project has been quashed after the
High Court found the consenting authority's interpretation
of an adaptive management approach was too narrow.

The
35-year consent was granted in August on the casting vote of
the chair of a decision-making committee appointed by the
Environmental Protection Authority. Among the many
conditions was a requirement for two years of monitoring and
data gathering before commencement of the project.

"The
appeal is allowed and the decision of the decision-making
committee is quashed," Justice Peter Churchman said in
today's judgment. "The matter is referred back to the DMC
for reconsideration, applying the correct legal test in
relation to the concept of adaptive management approach."

The appeals were lodged by conservation, fishing and iwi
groups after the company was given permission to extract 50
million tonnes of seabed material a year. It would export up
to 5 million tonnes of iron sand per year from the ocean
floor in the South Taranaki Bight, generating $400 million
of export revenue annually.

The decision is another blow
for TTR, which had its initial consent bid for the project
turned down in 2014 - largely due to a lack of baseline
information on the expected impacts of its proposal. There
is little baseline environmental data available for much of
the country's 4.3 million square-kilometre exclusive
economic zone.

Kiwis Against Seabed Mining and Greenpeace
today hailed the High Court’s decision to uphold their
appeal as a “victory for the oceans.”

“This is a
victory for the thousands of people who have protested and
the 13,000 who made submissions against this awful proposal,
a victory for the South Taranaki Bight, the blue whales and
the entire New Zealand marine ecosystem,” said Cindy
Baxter, chairperson of Kiwis Against Seabed Mining.

Seven
separate appeals were lodged that were consolidated and
heard together. While Justice Churchman conceded there was
no error in law on a number of the appeals, "the narrower
interpretation of the concept of adaptive management
approach, applied by the DMC, is inconsistent with the
meaning of that term derived from s 64 of the EEZ act,"
according to the judgment.

The court said the adopted
interpretation was inconsistent with the purpose of the act
of "protecting the environment from pollution by regulating
or prohibiting the discharge of harmful substances." It was
also inconsistent with the obligation that where information
available is uncertain or inadequate, a marine consent
authority must favour caution and environmental protection.
"The error was material and may well have influenced the
outcome of the consent application," the court said.

The
EPA said it noted the decision and "will now carefully
consider the findings and the implications."

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